Posts Tagged ‘music’

It’s only natural that musical performance and technology would collide in some interesting ways at this year’s CES. Musicians, music teachers, and students are always looking for new ways to hone their skills. And eager hardware/software developers are stepping up to provide some innovative tools to help.

One such company is called Jameasy. Todd met with Dawon from Jameasy. Dawon is a violinist (and a capable one at that). She showed off the Jameasy system which uses a Bluetooth-enabled sensor on her violin that measures all kinds of information from the instrument and transmits it to the Jameasy app on her iPad. The app then tracks her performance and shows her where her playing might be off from the original composition. Correct notes show as green, wrong notes as red, and notes that were just a bit off show up as yellow.

The Jameasy system is expected to retail for between $59 and $99. Jameasy is planning on expanding its product to all stringed instruments, but the product will be available for violin first.

Todd Cochrane is the host of the twice-weekly Geek News Central Podcast at GeekNewsCentral.com.

Philips is set on keeping their customers satisfied with new products this year. They are targeting different consumer needs from a durable active-wear to high quality fashion headphones.

Philips is making an active lifestyle easier and more convenient for customers by creating their new sports headphones, Wireless Freedom. This product is purely Bluetooth and gives the user a sense of running freely without feeling like they are wearing headphones at all. While being light weight, they are still extremely heavy duty and robust. Wireless Freedom has a long lasting battery life that lasts up to 4 and a half hours of playtime. Philips cares about the health and fitness of their customers and wants them to perform their best while working hard.
Philips is also targeting people who want to look glamourous while listening to their music and they can with the new Everlite Headphones. It says it right on the box, “Streamlined to shine, clear and crisp.” They are quality sounding headphones, made with a convenient built in microphone. The Everlite comes in an attractive rose gold color while looking great and sitting comfortable. They are even compact and easy to put away.

If you are more into listening to music with no distractions, the Active Shield Pro is for you. Philips took noise cancellation by storm with a new and unique headset that eliminates 99% of background noise. The Active Shield Pro offers a no pollution, clean sound without having to crank up the volume to distract yourself from the outside world. You can enjoy them wireless or not with the ability to use the Bluetooth capability. Without a wire, the battery life can last up to 15 hours with Bluetooth and noise cancellation but also comes with a wire to plug into if the battery is too low so the music continues to play.

These products are already available for purchase at Philips.com with the Wireless Freedom on sale for $69.99, the Everlite for $49.99, and the Active Shield Pro for $169.99.

Gibson Guitars is excited to release their new High Performance Series based out of Nashville, Tennessee with the most innovative electric guitar they have ever made. This series has generated a lot of excitement and interest at CES. New features from this series include a unique contoured neck heel called the Soloist Neck. The Soloist Neck allows players to hit the highest notes on the neck board comfortably. This series also includes a height adjustable titanium nut that gives the player access to adjust how high they want their strings.

Gibson has also updated their G Force self-tuning system with the ability for alternate tuning. The updated system is faster and more accurate than ever before. You could tune a guitar with just the press of a button and a strum of the strings. It is also the first time that Gibson has released a self-tuning acoustic guitar in the Progressive Series due to the feedback from acoustic players who also want to use the easy access G Force system. These acoustic guitars are hand crafted in Bozeman, Montana and are made of solid wood.

These guitars are available for purchase now at any local Gibson authorized dealer like Guitar Center, Sam Ash, or Amazon. The High Performance Series starts at $1099.99 or if you aren’t interested in the self-tuning system, you could purchase an electric guitar from the Traditional series starting at $739.99. The Progressive Series acoustic guitars starts at $1499.99.

In 2016 it may seem strange to be reading about turntables, but the interest in vinyl has been growing in popularity the past few years. With that trend, it’s good to be a company like Crosley who has specialized in turntables since they were founded.

The company has been known for their self-contained turntable systems, occasionally featured in movies, but as the industry reemerges, there is demand from customers for a traditional component-style turntable. This year, they are showing off several, including one prototype for a future model.

Everyone loves to bring their music on the go and Altec Lansing’s latest take on its Boomjacket model is combining a great look with a ton of options.

The standard Boomjacket has a fabric finish in a variety of colors and features multi-point paring so users can put together their own surround sound setup. Consumers can mount the device if they choose, an option that comes right out of the box, and it offers 50 hours of battery life while also having the ability to charge another device. However, the Boomjacket is versatile as well and can be used in almost any type of setting seeing as it is largely element proof and also floats, making it truly water proof.

The Boomjacket retails at $199, but Altec Lansing also will offer a mini version that prices at $99 and has 16 hours of battery life. Those needing a little more than the standard can grab the Sonic Boomjacket for $300. That model has 60 hours of battery life with a 100 foot wireless range. All three options are expected to be available in the second quarter of the year.

In today’s headphone market, it is getting harder and harder to differentiate yourself. There are really 2 ways to do it: price and features. Altec Lansing, in their 2016 lineup, have decided to go both ways.

First, they have introduced a line of colorful Bluetooth headphones that come in at an astoundingly low price: $39.99. The company didn’t skimp on the quality to accomplish this price, either. These headphones will be great for people looking for inexpensive headphones.

On the other hand, they have introduced some headphones and earbuds with some really cool features. For example, waterproof individual earbuds that contain GPS so if you lose one or both, you can easily track it down to its last known location.

Additionally, there is the DVR DJ headphone. These headphones contain an HD camera which allows you to record point-of-view video right from your headphones. This is great for DJs, skateboarders and more. These are coming soon for $199.

Oasis headphones by Audasis offer a different look, feel and customization to the ever-competing market of noise-canceling headphones.

For starters, Oasis actually augments your existing, favorite earbuds and not only reduce ambient noise, but also add bluetooth technology to make them wireless. They aim for a sleek, clean look as there are invisible buttons and no ports on the headphones. The eco-friendly device features 20-to-30 useable hours of battery life and CEO Phil Diamond said they plan on shipping with zero packaging. Instead, the headphones will come in a protective case that can charge the Oasis, wireless dongle and up to two devices by way of a USB port simultaneously. The case also features a customizable e-ink display and its lock is app controlled.

Diamond said the target price for the headphones is $150 and are aiming to be shipped by the fourth quarter of 2016. Oasis is coming soon to Kickstarter and more information can be found at audasis.com.

Sennheiser have always been one of my preferred headphone brands and I previously reviewed the Momentum On-Ears for GNC. Consequently, I was very interested to hear that a second generation of Momentum headphones were on their way with both Bluetooth wireless and noise-cancellation features. Marlo chats to Scott Houston from Sennheiser about the Momentum Wireless.

The new Sennheiser Momentum Wireless takes the original Momentum and updates it for listening on the move. No tangled wires with Bluetooth wireless; environmental sound kept to a minimum with active noise cancellation; integrated microphone to take calls without removing the headphones, improved padding for extended listening and folding arms to pack the headphones away neatly. Overall, it looks like a tidy package.

Of course, this doesn’t come cheap with the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless costing US$499 or GB£379 from Sennheiser’s web store.

It’s one thing to make music. It’s another to react to that music. But the Phonotonic turns a person’s movements into real time music, changing the entire dynamic of the music creation process.

Scott spoke to Nicolas, a representative for Phonotonic. Nicolas performed an upbeat demo of his product, showing how the movements of his body changed the sounds produced by two Phonotonics, one for rhythm, another for melody. Phonotonic uses Bluetooth to transmit data to a smartphone app which then converts that data into musical sounds.

Phonotnic is currently only available in France but the product will receive a wider roll out as the year goes on.

Whether you’re a musician or a music fan, no one appreciates an out-of-tune instrument. And while there are plenty of solutions out there to help players keep their strings properly tuned, they usually require weird workarounds or clunky devices.

Todd and Nick met with Sam Force of Band Industries. Sam showed off the Roadie Tuner, a mechanical Bluetooth-enabled guitar tuner. Just put Roadie Tuner over your instrument’s tuning pegs and the connected smartphone app takes over, analyzing the sound coming from the strings and telling Roadie Tuner to turn the pegs accordingly.

Roadie Tuner would make for a fine accessory for beginners and guitar vets alike. It is currently available for $99 direct from the Roadie Tuner website as well as a growing number of retail outlets.